


Like We Never Even Left at All

by Car



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Ben Hanscom is a Good Friend, Ben tries his hand at being Reddie's emotional support friend, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak is a Mess, Fix-It, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Minor Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, and we love him for it, canon compliant until the fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28246782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Car/pseuds/Car
Summary: "Hey man, do you, um, do you remember that night when we were kids? When I crawled into your window during the middle of the night like an insane person and started ranting about my, uh, friend with a crush on his friend?" Ben nodded, so Eddie continued. "You know...I uh, I wasn't really talking about a friend that night," he mumbled quietly, fidgeting.Ben smirked. "You don't say?"
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 109





	Like We Never Even Left at All

**Author's Note:**

> My boy Ben coming in to give his lady a well-deserved break from being the romance emotional support friend today, and we love him for it. 
> 
> I love Ben being the kind of romance guru of the Losers, he's just always so willing to help, even when the Losers get all weird about it. 
> 
> The title comes from the New Kids on the Block song "80s Baby" which is a straight up bop and I have been listening to it all morning. Do I count as an 80's baby if I was born in 88? I like to think so. 
> 
> Anyway, Enjoy!!

_**Like We Never Even Left at All** _

"Ben. _Ben_. _Ben!_ "  
  


Ben blinked awake slowly, rubbing a fist against his eyes and squinting at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock. "Wha—?" he mumbled, gazing around his room in an attempt to figure out what woke him up. "What was...?"  
  


"Oh, for the love of— _Ben!_ "  
  


He finally, laboriously, flipped himself over under his covers and looked to his window, spying the vague shape of one Eddie Kaspbrak hovering just at the edge of his vision in the dark with one big, brown eye poking through the crack in his barely-open window. He blinked. "Eddie?"  
  


Eddie nodded fervently, glancing over his shoulder nervously, like someone was going to catch him loitering around Ben's window at—he checked his alarm clock again—almost _two in the morning_. "Yeah. Hi," Eddie stage-whispered, which was even louder than Ben's normal speaking voice, he noted in amusement. "Can you let me in? Please?"  
  


Ben bit his lip, checking once quickly that his bedroom door was closed and securely locked before gesturing to the window unhelpfully. "It's unlocked," he mumbled back.  
  


Eddie nodded again and got to work prying the window up awkwardly, giving Ben just enough time to shake himself awake enough to wonder just what _the hell_ was going on right now.   
  


See, Ben had never really had...friends. Even before moving to Derry, he wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity, his immediate social circle consisting of the kids of his mom's friends, and the classmates nice enough to not complain to the teacher when they were asked to let Ben join their reading group.   
  


So yeah, it wasn't like Ben was an expert on friendship or anything, but even he knew enough to know when something one or more of the Losers were doing was a little abnormal. And truthfully, he'd been under the impression that the whole climbing into each other's windows in the middle of the night thing was more of a, well...  
  


An exclusively _Richie and Eddie_ thing.   
  


Eddie fell unceremoniously through the window, landing awkwardly onto his butt with a tiny 'oof'. Ben winced, finally slipping out from under his covers and helping him up to his feet, listening but not really listening as Eddie grumbled about a scrape he had gotten on his shin from Ben's mom's rose bushes, and how his leg was bound to get infected.   
  


"—And honestly, you really should think about getting rid of them altogether. Do you know how much pollen you could have blowing into your room from those things? Not to mention bees. And I'm sure—"  
  


"Eddie," Ben began, interrupting Eddie's rant as kindly and gently as possible. "What's wrong? What are you doing here?"  
  


Eddie's mouth snapped shut, his back going straight and rigid for just a moment before seeming to deflate in defeat. "I...need some advice," he sighed.  
  


"Right _now?_ " Ben asked, probably not as nicely as he could have been, judging by Eddie's suddenly rising heckles, but it was the middle of the night, so he wasn't really sure what Eddie was expecting.   
  


"I couldn't sleep! I _haven't_ slept!" Eddie cried defensively, pacing around Ben's room, his eyes wide and manic in the dark. "It's been like, three days, and if I don't get some answers and sleep soon, there is no way I'm not going to get sick. Sleep deprivation is one of the leading causes of a lowered immune system." His hand sliced through the air as he turned around, once again staring Ben down with big, vulnerable eyes. "You don't mind, right?"  
  


Actually, Ben minded very much, but he was a nice guy and Eddie was clearly going _Through Something_ , so he sighed and moved over for Eddie to join him on the edge of the bed. "No, I don't mind. It's just... Don't you usually go to Richie for stuff like this?"  
  


Eddie's face immediately darkened menacingly as a reluctant blush began creeping up into his cheeks. "Fuck that. I need actual, serious advice right now, not whatever that dipshit would come up with just to make fun of me for later."  
  


Which did make sense, even if Ben had a sneaking suspicion that wasn't the whole story. Eddie and Ben lived only a few streets away from each other in the same neighborhood, so it wasn't surprising he thought to come to him once Richie was out of the picture. "Well, I'll do my best, I guess. What's up?"  
  


Eddie nodded gratefully, biting his lip as he wrung his hands nervously in his lap. Now that Ben looked closer, he did look pretty tired, the bags under his eyes even deeper and darker than he was used to seeing. Had he said he hadn't gotten sleep in _three days_? No wonder he got fed up and bolted to the closest Loser's house. "Okay," Eddie sighed, almost painfully. "I... have this _friend_."  
  


"A _friend_?"  
  


"Yes, a friend."  
  


"One of the Losers?"  
  


"What? No. No, you don't know him." Ben raised a skeptical eyebrow. Eddie frowned. "I have other friends," he insisted.  
  


Ben was almost positive that Eddie did not, in fact, have other friends, but he smiled softly, pretending to believe him, and prompted him to continue. Eddie's right leg began bouncing.   
  


"Okay, so this friend," he breathed, "for the last few, like, months, I guess, has been starting to feel kind of... weird about one of his other friends."  
  


"Weird?" Ben asked carefully. "Weird how?"  
  


He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Like, fucking _weird_. I don't _know_."  
  


"Well, I can't really help if I don't—"  
  


" _Uuuugh!_ " Eddie moaned, grabbing for Ben's pillow and shoving his face into it. Ben blinked back in surprise. Finally, Eddie slammed the pillow back into his thighs and threw his hands into the air. "Like—Like, he makes him feel like he's _drowning_ , okay? Like, he can't breathe! And like if he even so much as looks at this guy he's going to burst into flames, but at the same time, all he wants is for him to spend every moment of every fucking day focused on _him_ , and if he doesn't, if this guy so much as _thinks_ about focusing his attention on someone else, my friend feels like he's gotta do whatever he can to get it back, even if it's stupid and embarrassing! Like his heart is either going to get permanently lodged into his throat and choke him to death, or burst out of his chest like fucking _Alien_ , and sometimes it's both at the same fucking time, and it's driving him _insane_ because what the _fuck_ does that even _mean,_ Ben?! What's going _on?!_ "  
  


Ben's mouth hung open stupidly, so he snapped it shut and resisted whistling under his breath because, well, holy _shit,_ Eddie. "That's...a lot," he mumbled.  
  


"No _shit,_ " Eddie agreed with a groan, smashing his face back into the pillow and letting himself fall onto his back on the bed dramatically, whining out a muffled, "Any and all insight would be _great_ right now, dude."  
  


"Okay," Ben sighed, knowing he had to be tactful here so as not to scare Eddie off or something. "Now, I can't say anything for _sure_ , remember, because I don't know him, but... Eddie, it sounds like your friend might, you know, _like_ this guy."  
  


" _Like?_ " Eddie demanded, pulling his face free from the pillow again to glare up at him. "What do you mean _like_? Of _course_ he _likes_ him, they're _friends._ "  
  


"Not like... that." Ben smiled gently, trying to approach this as delicately as possible. "You know... _like_ -like." And then, just to make sure Eddie understood, added, "Like a crush."  
  


Eddie barked out a laugh, sitting himself up. "What? No! No way. That's impossible," he snorted. "They're, they're both _guys_ , dude! Two guys can't... Couldn't possibly... Because then he'd... Uh... Oh. Oh no." His eyes widened. "Oh shit. Ben... _Ben._ "  
  


Ben sat next to Eddie quietly, watching as the dots connected in real time and staying quiet in what he hoped came off as a supportive, open-minded kind of way. "You okay, Eddie?" he asked softly once Eddie had transitioned from rambling to silently gaping at nothing for a few moments. Eddie nodded distractingly, then switched to shaking his head back and forth.   
  


"I need to go," he spat out quickly, thrusting the pillow into Ben's grasp and speed-walking back to the window.   
  


"Edd—?"  
  


"I'm good, I'm fine. I'm like, so, _so_ fine. Peachy," Eddie rambled once again, tripping over his own feet as he stumbled over the ledge and practically fell back out the window. Ben furrowed his eyebrows, walking over and peeking out, just to make sure Eddie didn't accidentally kill himself on the way out. "Just gonna... My friend—" He squeaked out a pained, wounded kind of noise before hopping back up onto his feet and taking off across the lawn.   
  


Ben frowned, watching as Eddie disappeared into the distance, breaking out into an impressively fast run as soon as he hit the sidewalk, and closed the window with a forlorn air of finality on the whole, bizarre conversation.   
  


He wasn't surprised when Eddie made no attempt to bring up the incident the next day at school, or the following day after that, and could only hope, as time went on, that he had made peace with whatever realizations he made that night./  
  


He certainly wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.  
  


_**27 Years Later...  
  
**_

"Are you sure you know how to do this, dude?"  
  


Ben, not taking his eyes off where he was carefully stitching up Eddie's recently stabbed cheek, nodded, smiling. "Accidents happen at construction sites all the time. I like to be prepared to help anyone that gets hurt, so I got trained. It won't be pretty, but it'll be something."  
  


" _Construction sites?_ " Eddie asked, skeptically. "Aren't you the big fancy architect? How often— _Ow_. How often are you even at construction sites?"  
  


Ben smiled. "Enough. Now hold still."  
  


Eddie pursed his lips, almost nodding before thinking better of it with a sharp needle going in and out of his face.   
  


"Besides," Ben continued, "it was either me or Bev, and while she's handy with a sewing needle, this may be a bit more blood than she's used to."  
  


Eddie snorted at that before falling into an awkward sort of quiet. "So, Richie really left, then?" he asked after a pause, probably softer than he intended.   
  


Ben hummed sadly in confirmation. "I guess my pep-talk wasn't as effective as I hoped," he answered lamely.   
  


Honestly, Richie probably hadn't been ready to have that conversation quite yet, and it may have done more harm than good in the end, but it was a necessary evil that needed to be addressed, and Ben was definitely the most qualified.   
  


"If you aren't gonna stay for yourself," he'd told him, brokenly, "stay for _us_ , for the Losers." And then, because Richie was still looking way too much like a flight risk for comfort, he brought out the big guns, the only sure-fire way to get Richie Tozier to listen to reason, even twenty-seven years later, "Stay for Eddie."  
  


Richie had blustered and blushed, demanding to know just what the fuck Ben meant by _that_ , despite knowing well enough, but finally, after a sincere "C'mon Rich..." from Ben, he managed to calm himself down enough to begrudgingly agree to stay.  
  


Well, begrudgingly _lie_ about agreeing to stay. Ben was starting to think he was a touch too naïve for his own good.   
  


He worked in relative silence for a few long minutes, punctured over only by Eddie's small ' _ow_ 's and Ben's ' _sorry_ 's as he worked. It was only after the wound was as sewn and patched up as good as it was going to get until they could get Eddie to a professional, that Eddie cleared his throat and broke the tension.   
  


"Hey man, do you, um, do you remember that night when we were kids? When I crawled into your window during the middle of the night like an insane person?"  
  


Ben began packing his medical supplies back into the first-aid kit, chuckling. "Yeah, I remember that. Came back to me sometime during dinner at the Jade."  
  


Eddie nodded absently, wringing his hands nervously. "Right. So you, uh, remember what we talked about, then?"  
  


"Your friend with a crush on his friend?" he asked, going for sincere but knowing it was probably a little closer to teasing.   
  


Eddie, effectively proving Ben correct, flushed up his ears, nodding. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, that." He cleared his throat, avoiding Ben's eyes. "You know... I uh, I wasn't really talking about a friend that night," he mumbled quietly, fidgeting.   
  


Ben smirked. "You don't say?"  
  


"Okay, you don't need to be all fucking smug about it," Eddie grumbled, rolling his eyes, much to Ben's amusement. "I was like, thirteen and— _Fuck_. I just—Yeah."  
  


Ben smiled softly, giving Eddie's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "He'll turn back up," he told him confidently, trusting Eddie knew that _he knew_ exactly who they were talking about without him having to say.  
  


But Eddie just nodded, far less self-assured, and followed Ben back down to the lobby to meet back up with Bev.  
  


O  
  


"You should tell him."  
  


Richie snorted, wiping his freshly washed and blood-free hands off on his pants and meeting Ben's knowing gaze in the library bathroom mirror with a sardonic look of his own. "Fun joke, Haystack. I thought I was the comedian around here," he quipped.  
  


Ben sighed. He wiped his own freshly washed hands dry on a paper towel and tossed it into the garbage. "Mike isn't the only one I had to stitch up after getting attacked by Bowers today, Rich," he said softly, turning and facing Richie directly. "We got lucky this time; and I'm not trying to be pessimistic or anything, but what if we don't get so lucky next time? What if you don't get another chance?"  
  


"What's the old saying?" Richie asked, shoving his hands into his jacket. "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot than to speak and remove all doubt?" He laughed bitterly, grabbing the bathroom door and holding it open for Ben to pass through. "Yeah, I'll fucking pass, thanks." His eyes darkened briefly, a flash of anger that almost immediately shifted to something far more sad and despondent. "Also, pot, meet kettle, bud. You first."  
  


Ben smiled sadly, and knowing Richie had a point, kept his mouth shut as they returned to join the others.   
  


O  
  


"Are you heading out?" Eddie asked, looking up from the little sudoku puzzle book the Losers had bought him to keep him from losing his mind while confined to his hospital bed for so long.   
  


Ben nodded sadly, adjusting his backpack more comfortably on his shoulder as he walked across the room to join Eddie at his bedside. "I've got a big project to close up, and then I'll be free for a while after that. Might spend some time on the boat. Bev's thinking of joining me."  
  


Eddie hummed in amusement, raising knowing eyebrows at Ben, who felt himself flush hotly in his cheeks. "Well, good luck with that, man. Have fun, stay safe. Build—I don't know, tall? Strong? I know jack-shit about architecture. Try not to have to do anymore stitching though, you kind of suck at it."  
  


Ben chuckled, leaning down and giving Eddie a careful hug, mindful of his healing wounds. "Rich has been pacing around the gift shop for the last hour picking you out a present, you know," he told him playfully as he went to stand back up straight, grinning as Eddie's cheeks took on a rosy hue of their own. "Maybe it's time to listen to some sage advice? Put the poor guy out of his misery after all these years?"

  
"Shut up," Eddie grumbled, but smiled back at him nonetheless, shaking his head. "Just send that asshole in here," he said, a determined glint in his eyes. "I got this."  
  


After leaving Eddie's room, Ben passed an equally determined Richie marching down the hallway, a bouquet of hospital gift shop roses clutched in his fist. He offered him a dorky little thumbs up, which Richie returned a little weakly, looking suspiciously like he had just thrown up, and was dangerously close to doing it again.  
  


"Go get 'em, Rich," Ben encouraged. "If I can do it, you can."  
  


Richie snorted. "Uh, no. You don't get to say _shit_ when you look like _that_ , you goddamn Prince Charming motherfucker. Your life experiences aren't fucking universal."   
  


Ben chuckled and patted Richie on the shoulder, giving him one last little nod of motivation before sending him off back down the hall.  
  


Richie took a deep breath and disappeared into Eddie's room as Ben smiled to himself, pressing the button on the elevator to go down.  
  


He didn't doubt for a second that they were going to be just fine.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Aw Ben, you did good, bud. The other Losers appreciate you, too. :')
> 
> I like to think everyone else was like "Ben knows how to deal with emotions? Send him to deal with the idiots." while Ben is like "I held onto a yearbook page from 6th grade with the name of a girl I don't even know on it for 27 years, so I don't know if that counts, but I'll do it because love is precious."
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! <3


End file.
